Six plots on the McMaster University campus were instrumented with thermocouples down to a depth of 225 cm. The choice of instruments and procedures was outlined and justified. A complete description of the site soil and climatic characteristics was made. Throughout the year soil temperature observations were taken to provide a complete picture of the conditions prevailing. In addition to studying the annual march of temperature, experiments were conducted by applying simple surface treatments to test plots and comparing the results with an untreated control plot. These experiments were conducted both over a period of weeks and on the daily scale. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

Die Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der Kommunikation der beiden Energie-Technologien Wasserstoff und Offshore-Wind und untersucht, inwieweit konkrete Argumente in der Lage sind, deren Akzeptanz intendiert zu beeinflussen. Um die Wirkung von sowohl positiven als auch negativen Argumenten zu messen, wurde ein repräsentativ angelegtes Experiment durchgeführt. Die Auswahl der dort getesteten Argumente basiert auf zwei Basis-Studien, mit deren Hilfe Argumente identifiziert wurden, welche Akteure aus den Bereichen Wirtschaft, Politik, Forschung, Gesellschaft und Medien in ihrer Kommunikation nutzten: (1) Systematische Dokumentenanalyse von Kommunikationsmaterial und (2) Quantitative Medienanalyse von Nachrichtenmedien für 2009 und 2013. Dabei wurde das Ziel verfolgt, für jedes der fünf Akteurssysteme sowohl häufig (dominante) als auch selten verwendete Argumente (Reframes) aufzuspüren, um die Wirkung beider Argument-Typen zu untersuchen. Die Effekte von Argumenten auf die Akzeptanz wurden sowohl unmittelbar erfasst als auch nach einer Zeitspanne von 3 Wochen, was – durch ein Panel-Design umgesetzt – auch Aussagen über die Wirkungsdauer lieferte. Zudem wurde analysiert, inwieweit der Persuasionsprozess durch bestimmte Moderatoren beeinflusst wird: Emotionalisierung, Competitive Framing, Persönliche Betroffenheit von einer Technologie, Art der Informationsverarbeitung und Zeitpunkt der Urteilsbildung. Die Studie konnte für beide Energie-Technologien eine stärkere Wirkung dominanter Argumente im Vergleich zu Reframes feststellen. Reframes sollten deshalb in der Kommunikation nur dann verwendet werden, wenn das Argument bereits einen gewissen Bekanntheitsgrad erzielt hat. Emotionalisierung wirkte nur bedingt: Insbesondere positive Reframes sowie negative dominante Argumente konnten emotionalisiert die Akzeptanz stärker beeinflussen. Zudem wurde das NIMBY-Konzept relativiert: Besonders von einer Technologie persönlich Betroffene wurden von positiven Argumenten überzeugt – negative Argumente entfalteten ihre Wirkung dagegen eher bei Nicht-Betroffenen. Weiterhin ließen sich die Annahmen der klassischen Zwei-Prozess-Modelle der Informationsverarbeitung entkräften, da auch die in dieser Studie fokussierten inhaltlichen Argumente heuristisch verarbeitet wurden und Wirkung erzielten.

Counter-Current Flow Limitation (CCFL) is of importance for PWR safety analyses in several accident scenarios connected with loss of coolant. Basing on the experiences obtained during a first series of hot leg tests now new experiments on counter-current flow limitation were conducted in the TOPFLOW pressure vessel. The test series comprises air-water tests at 1 and 2 bar as well as steam-water tests at 10, 25 and 50 bar. During the experiments the flow structure was observed along the hot leg model using a high-speed camera and web-cams. In addition pressure was measured at several positions along the horizontal part and the water levels in the reactor-simulator and steam-generator-simulator tanks were determined. This report documents the experimental setup including the description of operational and special measuring techniques, the experimental procedure and the data obtained. From these data flooding curves were obtained basing on the Wallis parameter. The results show a slight shift of the curves in dependency of the pressure. In addition a slight decrease of the slope was found with increasing pressure. Additional investigations concern the effects of hysteresis and the frequencies of liquid slugs. The latter ones show a dependency on pressure and the mass flow rate of the injected water. The data are available for CFD-model development and validation.

Der vorliegende Bericht gibt einen zusammenfassenden Überblick der im Vorhaben erreichten Ergebnisse. Ziel war die Qualifikation von CFD-Methoden für Zweiphasenströmungen mit Phasenüber¬gang. Dafür werden neuartige experimentelle Daten benötigt. Diese können an der TOPFLOW-Anlage des HZDR generiert werden, da die Anlage Experimente in für die Reaktorsicher-heits¬forschung relevanten Skalen und Parametern mit innovativen Messtechniken verbindet. Die experimentellen Arbeiten umfassen Untersuchungen zu Strömungen in vertikalen Rohren mit Hilfe der ultraschnellen Röntgentomographie, zu Strömungen mit und ohne Phasenübergang in einem Testbassin sowie zur Gegenstrombegrenzung in einem Heißstrangmodell. Diese werden im vorliegenden Bericht nur kurz dargestellt, da es zu allen 3 Versuchsserien ausführliche Dokumentationen in separaten Berichten gibt. Ein wichtiges Ergebnis der Arbeiten zur CFD-Qualifizierung ist der Erstellung des Baseline-Modellkonzepts sowie die Erstellung des Baseline-Modells für polydisperse Blasenströmungen. Damit wird ein wesentlicher Beitrag zur Erhöhung der Vorhersagefähigkeit von CFD-Codes auf Basis des Zwei- oder Mehr-Fluid-Modells erreicht. Das innovative Generalized Two-Phase Flow Konzept (GENTOP) zielt hingegen auf eine Erweiterung der Einsatzmöglichkeiten der Zweiphasen-CFD. In vielen Strömungen treten unterschiedlicher Morphologien der Phasen bzw. Strömungsformen parallel in einer Strömungsdomäne auf. Außerdem gibt es Übergänge zwischen diesen Morphologien. Mit dem GENTOP-Konzept wurde erstmals ein Rahmen geschaffen der die Simulation solcher Strömungen auf konsistente Art und Weise ermöglicht. Spezielle Modellentwicklungen erfolgten mit dem Ziel einer besseren Modellierung des Phasenübergangs.

Charles University in Prague - Faculty of Science Department of Teaching and Didactics of Chemistry Albertov 3, 128 40 Praha 2, Czech Republic Chemical experiments for ecoschools Bc. Zuzana Hegrová zuzana.hegrova@seznam.cz This thesis deals with environmental education in chemistry at both of the primary schools and the lower level of grammar schools. It is primarily focused on environmental chemical experiments at ecoschools. Since this topic is highly interdisciplinary, thesis interferes with other educational areas and disciplines than in chemistry. The theoretical part deals with the current situation in the field of environmental education. There is a tentative analysis of several contemporary Czech textbooks for primary schools and lower level of grammar schools. The analysis compares the representation of selected environmental topics and the number of experiments that appear in textbooks. In the practical part there are prepared teaching materials to support the experimental teaching chemistry with author solution for teachers. My intention was to create a stack of environmental experiments that should serve to facilitate the preparation of teachers in chemistry class, mostly in the experimental plane. Experiments demonstrate or explain principle, origin, prevention, solutions of various...

Using Joseph Wright's painting, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump as an inspirational starting point, Shelagh Stephenson's An Experiment with an Air Pump explores the depth of human existence using universal conflicts such as: morals versus ethics, science versus God and right versus wrong. Since the play's premiere in 1998, it has provided a forum for hot button topics such as stem cell research, abortion, and scientific experimentation. The University of New Orleans' production not only presented the issues in the play, it strives to be an example of theatrical excellence, challenge and engage both the company and the audience.

Challenges in global politics like climate change, maritime piracy and fighting highly contagious diseases concern global public goods. The related policy decisions are mostly made by teams. In contrast, economic models of global public goods typically assume a single rational decision-maker. We use a laboratory experiment to compare team decisions to decisions of individuals in a finitely repeated public good game with and without a costly punishment option. Teams of three participants coordinate on decisions either by majority or unanimity rule. We find that in absence of a punishment option teams contribute more to the public good than individuals. With a punishment option subsequently to the contribution decision team treatments exhibit a less frequent use of anti-social punishment and lower levels of social as well as anti-social punishment. Extreme preferences for punishment are eliminated by the majority decision rule. Overall, team decisions are closer to the social optimum and teams yield higher net payoffs when compared to individuals.

A sustainable development becomes more and more important with an increasing number of catastrophic and long-term changes to the environment due to global warming. This also means that all the actors in the society needs to take their responsibility to combat this development. One of these actors are the private sector where the investors plays a large part in which companies that gets to develop their ideas and make a difference in the world. So, the question is: are investors taking that responsibility today and invest in start-ups with a focus on sustainable development in their business plans. This thesis aims to study how inclined investors are to invest in start-ups with a focus on sustainable development in their business plan. This is tested though Discrete Choice Experiments where 14 investors got to choose between three different companies with different levels of focus on sustainable development. Company A with the least amount of sustainability, company B with some focus and company C with a high focus on sustainable development. The Discrete Choice Experiments were distributed through a survey format where the companies were represented with a Business Model Canvas each and the investors first got to choose between company A & B, then A & C, and then company B & C. The results show that investors chose company A with the least amount of focus on sustainable development in 26 percent of the cases, company B with some focus in 45 percent, and company C with a high amount of focus in 29 percent of the cases. The study also shows a variation between different groups of investors, i.e. the investors who identified themselves as women were more inclined on investing in more sustainable options then men, and angel investors showed a clear willingness to invest in sustainability compared to venture capitals. The conclusions of the study are that its purpose was fulfilled and that the research questions was answered, investors showed an inclination to investing in companies with some focus on sustainable development but not too much. The results of the study can be used by companies in need of investments since they can see what group they should focus on to increase their chances. It is despite this also important to remember that the reliability and the validity of the study can be criticised with flaws for example in the reputability of the results. Future research within the area should study larger populations of investors to see if the same patterns repeat itself in other groups. It should also split the different attributes of the business model to see if different attributes play a larger part when investors decide which company to invest in. / Då hållbar utveckling blir allt mer viktigt så behöver alla aktörer i samhället göra sin del för att minska de ibland katastrofala och långvariga klimatförändringarna som blir på grund av exempelvis en högre medeltemperatur på jorden. En av dessa aktörer är den privata sektorn där investerare har en stor påverkan i vilka företag som får möjlighet att testa sina idéer och göra skillnad i världen. Frågan är dock om investerare tar det ansvaret och investerar i start-up företag med fokus på hållbar utveckling i sin affärsmodell. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur benägen investerarna är att faktiskt göra detta. Detta testas genom ett Discrete Choice Experiment där 14 investerare fick välja mellan tre olika företag som har olika stort fokus på hållbar utveckling i sin affärsmodell. Företag A har minst fokus på hållbar utveckling, företag B har viss fokus och företag B har stort fokus på hållbar utveckling. Discrete Choice Experimentet distribuerades i enkätformat där företagen representerades av en Business Model Canvas vardera och investerarna fick först välja mellan företag A & B, sedan företag A & C, och till sist företag B & C. Resultatet från studien visar på att investerare vid 26 procent av gångerna skulle välja en start-up utan fokus på hållbar utveckling, 45 procent av gångerna en med visst fokus på hållbar utveckling och 29 procent av gångerna en start-up med stort fokus på hållbar utveckling. Undersökningen visar också på en differens mellan olika grupperingar då exempelvis de som identifierade sig som kvinnor var mer benägna att investera på hållbar alternativ än män. Dessutom visar ängelinvesterare tydligt på en större benägenhet att investera i start-ups med fokus på hållbar utveckling än riskkapitalister. Slutsatserna av studien är att dess syfte uppfyllts och forskningsfrågan besvarats med att investerare har en benägenhet att investera i start-ups med en visst fokus på hållbar utveckling men det fick inte bli för mycket fokus. Resultatet av undersökningen kan användas av företag som befinner sig i faser där de behöver investeringar samt att de kan se vilket typ av investerare de bör vända sig till för att få störst möjlighet till positivt resultat. Viktigt att ta med sig från undersökningen är att dess reliabilitet och validitet kan kritiseras med brister exempelvis inom upprepbarheten i resultaten. Fortsatt forskning inom området bör studera större populationer av investerare för att se om samma mönster upprepar sig inom andra grupperingar samt att attributen hos affärsmodellerna kan delas upp mer för att undersöka om vissa attribut har större betydelse än andra när investerare väljer vilka start-ups de ska investera i.

<p>Syftet med denna studie är att mäta och analysera detaljhandlares uppfattningar om konkurrenshot utifrån fyra olika hypotetiska valsituationer, ett Choice Experiment. Urvalsgruppen bestod av cityhandlare inom ett geografiskt definierat område i Gävle stad i Sverige. Resultatet indikerar att cityhandlare uppfattar konkurrens mellan marknadsplatser i viss utsträckning. Dock indikerar resultatet att konkurrens uppfattas inom marknadsplatsen i högre utsträckning i jämförelse med konkurrens mellan marknadsplatser.</p> / <p>The purpose of this study is to measure and analyse city retailers´ perceived threat of competition in four different hypothetical choice situations, a Choice Experiment. The selected group of retailers was located within a geographically defined area in the City of Gävle, Sweden. The results indicate that there is a variation in the retailers´ perceived threat of competition between market places. However, the results also indicates that threat of competition foremost is perceived in the local competing area.</p>

Syftet med denna studie är att mäta och analysera detaljhandlares uppfattningar om konkurrenshot utifrån fyra olika hypotetiska valsituationer, ett Choice Experiment. Urvalsgruppen bestod av cityhandlare inom ett geografiskt definierat område i Gävle stad i Sverige. Resultatet indikerar att cityhandlare uppfattar konkurrens mellan marknadsplatser i viss utsträckning. Dock indikerar resultatet att konkurrens uppfattas inom marknadsplatsen i högre utsträckning i jämförelse med konkurrens mellan marknadsplatser. / The purpose of this study is to measure and analyse city retailers´ perceived threat of competition in four different hypothetical choice situations, a Choice Experiment. The selected group of retailers was located within a geographically defined area in the City of Gävle, Sweden. The results indicate that there is a variation in the retailers´ perceived threat of competition between market places. However, the results also indicates that threat of competition foremost is perceived in the local competing area.